How to fill out Minnesota PS2010

The one plate form a Minnesota seller genuinely needs. Ordinary plates stay bolted to the car you sell, and the statute that says so - plates and stickers issued for a vehicle may not be transferred to another vehicle - is the same statute every special plate then exempts itself from, at $5 a time. So if you paid $100 for a personalised plate or contributed for a critical habitat one, this is the form that moves it onto your next car instead of handing it to a stranger.

Written against PS2010 (6/2024), issued under Minnesota Statutes 168.12. Do this before the sale, not after. Once the buyer has driven away with your special plate on the car it is on their vehicle and their registration, and getting it back is a conversation rather than a transaction.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank PS2010 from the assets.dps.mn.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Pick one plate

   One tick in section A, out of a menu that runs to several dozen.

   Watch out: This form covers new issues and transfers on the same sheet, so on a transfer the tick simply identifies which plate you already hold.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Section B, tick Transfer

   The middle of New, Duplicate and Transfer, then the plate being transferred in the box beside it.

   Watch out: This is the tick that turns the form into the one Minnesota sellers need. New is for a plate you do not have yet; Duplicate is for one that has been lost or damaged.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   The plate being transferred

   The characters on the plate itself, in the box beside the three ticks.

   Watch out: Copy it off the plate, not off the registration card. On a personalised plate the spacing and hyphens are part of the combination.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Section C, the vehicle it is going onto

   Make, year, previous plate and vehicle identification number of the car that will carry the plate.

   Watch out: The previous plate box here is the ordinary plate currently on that vehicle - the one the special plate will replace, and which then comes off.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Section D, the vehicle it came off

   Make, year, previous plate and vehicle identification number of the car the plate had been used on.

   Watch out: The one you are selling. This is the block that gets left blank, and it is what lets the department close the plate off the old record before the buyer registers the vehicle.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   The fee stack

   Plate fee, personalization fee, plate transfer fee, contribution, state filing fee, local office surcharge, total due.

   Watch out: On a straight transfer most of those lines are empty. The plate transfer fee is the one that applies, and a contribution line only fills in where the plate you hold carries an annual one.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   The fee stack

   Plate transfer fee, contribution, state filing fee and local office surcharge, in the boxed stack at the top right.

   Watch out: A contribution plate collects its contribution again on a transfer - $30 for Critical Habitat - so the total is more than the $5 people expect.

8. 8
   You fill this in

   Sign it

   Applicant signature and date in section I, under the certification that the plates will be used only on that vehicle as long as it is in your possession.

   Watch out: The same certification promises to notify the department when the plates are transferred again. It is one of the few Minnesota vehicle forms whose signature line is a fillable box rather than a printed rule.

9. 9
   You fill this in

   Do it before the buyer arrives

   Not a box - the timing. The plate has to be off the sold vehicle and onto the new one while both are still yours.

   Watch out: In Minnesota an ordinary plate stays with the car. If the special plate is still on it when the buyer drives away, it goes with the car and the buyer's registration, and it is theirs to hand back or not.

What gets this one rejected

• •Ticking Transfer and leaving section D empty. The department needs to know which vehicle the plate is coming off as well as which one it is going onto.
• •Transferring a collector-class plate to an ordinary car. A personalised plate issued for a classic, pioneer, collector, street rod or classic motorcycle may not be transferred to a vehicle that is not eligible for it.
• •A veteran organisation plate with no membership card. The three of them are marked on the form as requiring one.
• •One personalisation choice. Three preference lines exist because the first choice is often gone, and an application with one is an application that may simply fail.
• •Expecting an ordinary plate to move. It cannot. The transfer mechanism on this form exists for special plates only, and that is the whole difference between them.
• •Forgetting the plate is worth money. The personalisation fee alone is $100, and it does not come back when the car is sold with the plate still on it.
• •Taking the plate off and leaving the buyer with nothing. The instructions are explicit: you must obtain regular plates for the motor vehicle on which the personalized plates were used, unless it is no longer registered in Minnesota.
• •Budgeting for the transfer fee alone. A contribution plate collects its contribution again when it is transferred to a new vehicle - $30 a year on a Critical Habitat plate - so the transfer costs more than the transfer fee.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •$5 is what a plate transfer costs. The fee stack has its own plate transfer fee line, and the statute sets the figure for personalised and special plates alike. It is the cheapest thing on this form and the reason to fill it in before the car is sold, not after.
• •Some plates cannot be ordered online. The department's brochure marks them with an asterisk. The rest can be ordered through the online change-plates transaction with the current plate number, the vehicle identification number and payment.
• •A one-plate or two-plate choice exists only for some vehicles. 1972 and older vehicles used for general transportation, and vehicles registered in one of the collector classes. Everything else displays two.

Every line here was read off PS2010 (6/2024) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Back to all Minnesota seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Minnesota involves.